Auckland’s Sea Life Aquarium
While we were housesitting in Auckland, we decided to check out their aquarium. We figured it would be something nice to do on a wintery, overcast day. Its official name is Kelly Tarlton’s Sea Life Aquarium. They were kind enough to offer us free admission so we could review it. Whenever you review a place, you always hope you’ll have positive things to say. Hope springs eternal, right? Our underwhelming experience began with finding...
Visiting Sibiu
We had heard some good things about this mid-size city in Romania, so we figured we would check it out. We had already declined it as a possible base because there are rarely good airfares from its airport, and it’s about a 6-hour train ride to Bucharest. That’s just too far from a good hub to be a decent base for travel. However, in view of the fact that Sibiu also served as the European Capital of Culture in 2007, we definitely felt...
Rethinking the idea of a base
Sometimes I feel like I’m a tennis ball, bouncing back and forth across the net when it comes to our travel ideas. There are times when the idea of having a base is really attractive. We’ve been in Romania for almost 3 months and have done some short trips while here. It has been quite lovely to leave the suitcase behind and just carry a messenger bag. But. . . Well, we aren’t really feeling the whole being rooted thing. We adore...
Grieving from Afar
We initially met via Yahoo’s online dating site in the spring of 2005. I was still in Texas finishing up my chaplain residency, but I had accepted a job near Denver, Colorado, and would soon be leaving the buckle of the Bible belt for the more open-minded, high-altitude life. He had adopted a son when the boy was a teenager. Having been a teenager waiting for adoption as well as now being an adult considering adoption in the near...
Gaining foreign vocabulary for travel
I’m always mystified when I meet travelers who don’t know a single word of the language for the country they’re visiting. No one expects you to be fluent, but at least learn some of the important words like “thank you.” And with all the technology available at our fingertips, there’s really no excuse to not have at least some local vocabulary for your visit. Here are just some of the tools available to you. Websites For trying to...
